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represses the less palatable features of his childhood in order /NO XD doesn’t cushion the force of this blow – but,
to avoid destabilising his carefully curated identity. The erosion critically, we come to understand that Thana’s journey to
RI KLV VHOI ZRUWK LQ WKH ĺOPpV ĺUVW DFW LV RQO\ WKH EHJLQQLQJ RI D this point has prepared him to accept the bitterness of his
path towards personal acceptance – a path that requires hon FLUFXPVWDQFHV 7KH ĺOP FRQFOXGHV ZLWK D WHQWDWLYH UHXQLRQ
est engagement with his past. EHWZHHQ 7KDQD DQG %R LQ WKH GHVHFUDWHG UHPDLQV RI *DUGHQLD
3HU WKH UHTXLUHPHQWV RI WKH URDG PRYLH JHQUH 7KDQD FDQpW 6TXDUH VXUURXQGHG E\ WKH YDFDQW VLPXODFUD RI GXVW\ PDQQH
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attain such acceptance himself, but must be led there through quins. 6KH JHQWO\ VKDUHV D VWRU\ RI ZHDWKHULQJ DQ HDUWKTXDNH
KLV HQFRXQWHUV DORQJ WKH ZD\ +LV ĺUVW VXFK VLJQLĺFDQW HQFRXQ LQ WKH EXLOGLQJ IHHOLQJ FRQĺGHQW LQ KHU VDIHW\ oEHFDXVH \RX
WHU LV ZLWK D YDJUDQW QDPHG 'HH &KDLZDW .KXPGHH IRXQG built this’. It’s a bittersweet conclusion. Thana has returned to
VTXDWWLQJ E\ WKH VLGH RI WKH KLJKZD\ 'HH LV WKH SRODU RSSRVLWH Bangkok, where his journey began, with no greater sense of
RI 7KDQD WUDQTXLO VNLHV YHUVXV DQ DQ[LRXV WKXQGHUVWRUP 'HHpV purpose, though now he’s blessed with the ability to accept
peaceful disposition even extends to his own mortality, as he his circumstances in all their imperfections. It brings to mind
tells his new companion, ‘I’m going to join my brother in heaven WKH RIW TXRWHG FKHVWQXW o'RQpW FU\ EHFDXVH LWpV RYHU VPLOH
>f@ , UHDG LW LQ WKH VWDUV p 'HHpV P\VWLFLVP DQG DVFHWLFLVP VXJ because it happened,’ which surely isn’t accidental if this pas
gest an antidote to Thana’s anxiety: to embrace internal peace, sage from Tan’s director statement is anything to go by: ‘Time
rather than fretting over one’s purpose and legacy. But, just as is the witness to it all and when time shows its hand, do we
Tan’s direction refuses to simplify her titular animal into a signi laugh or do we cry?’
ĺHU KHUH VKH UHVLVWV WKH WHPSWDWLRQ WR ĻDWWHQ 7KDQDpV HQFRXQ ,pYH SHUKDSV PLVUHSUHVHQWHG WKH ĺOP E\ IRFXVLQJ SXUHO\ RQ
WHU ZLWK 'HH LQWR D GRW SRLQW RQ KLV VHOI DFWXDOLVDWLRQ WR GR OLVW Thana’s personal journey. /NO XD is, more broadly, a story
'HH LV SRUWUD\HG HPSDWKHWLFDOO\ DV ZLWK 3RSH\H WKH FDPHUD about our inability to craft our personal histories – about how
refuses to simplify him into solely a symbol (though he is argu our legacies are not our own, and how our pasts aren’t neat
DEO\ RQ WKH XQUHDOLVWLF VLGH RI EHDWLĺF narratives bent to our wills. In fact, it’s also a story about
The two men are separated shortly after meeting when 7KDLODQG t DOEHLW PD\EH QRW RQH LPEXHG ZLWK D GHHS VSHFLĺF
Popeye escapes outside a local supermarket and is detained LW\ 7DQ LV D 6LQJDSRUHDQ ERUQ 1HZ <RUNtEDVHG ĺOPPDNHU
E\ SROLFH DV 7KDQD ODFNV DQ oHOHSKDQW OLFHQFHp KH LV DUUHVWHG whose experience of Thailand comes from two years of having
for ‘negligence and violating urban tidiness’. This subplot, in lived there. This experience – and, presumably, her work with
which a pair of policemen escort Thana and Popeye down the 7KDL FUHDWLYHV OLNH /HH &KDWDPHWLNRRO /NO XD’s editor and a
road at ‘elephant speed’, is a showcase for the screenplay’s UHJXODU FROODERUDWRU RI SURPLQHQW 7KDL ĺOPPDNHU $SLFKDWSRQJ
ZU\ FRPHG\ 'HHpV VWRU\OLQH KRZHYHU WDNHV D PRUH WUDJLF WXUQ :HHUDVHWKDNXO t HQVXUHV WKDW WKH ĺOP DYRLGV URPDQWLFLVLQJ
as he meets a fatal end in an accident while riding Thana’s mo RU GHQLJUDWLQJ LWV VHWWLQJ 7KH GHPROLWLRQ RI *DUGHQLD 6TXDUH
WRU VFRRWHU D JLIW RQ WKH ZD\ WR IXOĺO KLV RQH GUHDP WR WDNH KLV and the replacement of Thana’s rural home with an apartment
sweetheart out for a ride. building both hint at the encroaching arm of development, while
<HW LWpV QRW 'HHpV GHDWK WKDW FODULĺHV WKH ĺOPpV t WR ERUURZ WKH FKRLFH WR KDYH DQ HOHSKDQW t ZKLFK oV\PEROLVH>V@ KRSH
the director’s words – ‘existential themes’, but rather what lessness’ in a country increasingly stripped of forest environ

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Thana discovers when he sets out to honour his erstwhile ments – as the titular character nods to the consequences
IULHQGpV PHPRU\ 'HHpV WUXH V\PEROLF SXUSRVH LV FODULĺHG ZKHQ RI VXFK PRGHUQLVDWLRQ
7KDQD YLVLWV o'HHpV JLUOp RQO\ WR OHDUQ WKDW VKH KDV VHWWOHG 6XFK IDFWRUV OHQG /NO XD the same lingering melancholy
GRZQ ZLWK D IDPLO\ DQG KDVQpW VHHQ KHU H[ ER\IULHQG LQ \HDUV seen in the elephant’s big, sad eyes. This isn’t a grandstanding
1DUUDWLYHO\ WKLV VHUYHV D QHFHVVDU\ SXUSRVH t 7KDQD LV DEOH work that overemphasises its political messages, and it resists
to borrow a truck from her, which allows him to complete his WKH IDPLOLDU URDG PRYLH IRUPXOD WKDW ĺQGV PHDQLQJ DW WKH HQG
YR\DJH WR /RHL t EXW PRUH VLJQLĺFDQWO\ LW UHĻHFWV RXU SURWDJR RI WKH MRXUQH\ 7DQpV ĺOP VXJJHVWV \RX FDQpW FKDQJH \RXU IXWXUH
nist’s own denial about his past: memories that he’s edited QRU \RXU SDVW E\ UXQQLQJ DZD\ %XW SHUKDSV \RX FDQ ĺQG VRPH
DQG HUDVHG LQ DQ HIIRUW WR UHĺQH KLV VHOI LPDJH modicum of peace along the way.

#@UHC "QDVD HR @ RDBNMC@QX RBGNNK SD@BGDQ @MC EQDDK@MBD VQHSDQ
Hitting home
A@RDC HM !QHRA@MD 0TDDMRK@MC 'D HR SGD ENTMCDQ @MC DCHSNQ
7KDQDpV HYHQWXDO DUULYDO LQ /RHL EULQJV ZLWK LW WKUHH UHYHODWLRQV NE SGD VDARHSD ccpopculture, and has been published by SBS
One: his childhood home has been remade by developers into Movies Screen Education, The Guardian and The Big Issue. m
a generic apartment building. Two: Thana sold Popeye to a
circus prior to leaving for Bangkok, to fund his architectural Endnotes
studies there. And three: the elephant Thana has travelled with 1 .LUVWHQ 7DQ o'LUHFWRUpV $UWLVWLF 6WDWHPHQWp LQ &HUFDPRQ Pop Aye
for over several hundred kilometres is not, in fact, Popeye, but SUHVV NLW S
an unrelated elephant. Popeye, we’re reliably informed, was put 2 )XUWKHU UHLQIRUFHG E\ WKH WRS ELOOLQJ RI %RQJ WKH HOHSKDQW SOD\LQJ
down years earlier after he was injured at the circus. Popeye.
These last two developments clarify the thematic thrust of 3 .LUVWHQ 7DQ TXRWHG LQ -HUHP\ (OSKLFN oPop Aye t DQ ,QWHUYLHZ
WKH ĺOP )RU 7KDQD WKLV HOHSKDQW ZDV PRUH WKDQ MXVW DQ RSSRU ZLWK .LUVWHQ 7DQp 4:3 -XQH KWWSV IRXUWKUHHŷOP FRP
tunity to travel down memory lane during a dark time. ‘Popeye’ SRS D\H DQ LQWHUYLHZ ZLWK NLUVWHQ WDQ >, accessed
represented the possibility of redemption, the chance to salve a 1RYHPEHU
guilt that had clearly lingered for decades. But Thana’s arrival in 4 3RVVLEO\ DQ REOLTXH UHIHUHQFH WR KRZ 7KDQD DQG WKH DXGLHQFH
/RHL TXDVKHV WKDW SRVVLELOLW\ ZLWK GHYDVWDWLQJ ĺQDOLW\ +H VROG RXW LPSRVH PHDQLQJ RQ KLV UDQGRP HQFRXQWHUV RQ WKH URDG SUREDEO\
the optimism of the youth – and the elephant, besides – for the MXVW PDQQHTXLQV
ashen failure of adulthood. His legacy is a crumbling marriage 7DQ o'LUHFWRUpV $UWLVWLF 6WDWHPHQWp RS FLW
and a building scheduled for destruction. 6 Tan, quoted in Elphick, op. cit.

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